Awesome book trailer for my pastor and friend Herbert Cooper’s new book “But God Changes Everything.” I can personally say, it’s an awesome book… Read it, it may be just the tool that changes everything in your life.

A major problem when it comes to the success or lack there of for an individual, organization or brand is the fact that they are always chasing their competition. They make moves based on what their competition is doing and what they think their competition is thinking. These types of moves are not limited to the corporate giants or major brands, it also happens on a daily basis for individuals, ministry’s and non-profits; although they don’t claim to “see others as their competition.”

The problem with chasing your competition is it’s similar to a cat chasing its tail, you are just running around in circles going nowhere while everything around you is still moving. Chasing your competition inherently presents the inability to understand the true nature of the what, how and why they are running the race they are running. You can never truly understand their vision, their mission and ultimately the dreams that are driving their every decision.

There are all types of leaders, Good, Bad and Ugly. The reality is some “so called” leaders are actually LINO’s, not to be con LIONS. LINO’s are Leaders In Name Only. Yes, they are only “leaders” because of their name, title or corner office only.

The Best and Worst Types of Leaders can be divided into a number of simple categorical descriptions. I’m going to share 5 of each, believe me there are definitely more.

The 5 Worst Types Of Leaders are:

The leaders who are only in a role because a close friend or family member placed them there. It’s obvious to everyone inside and outside of the organization that they don’t belong in any sort of leadership role of any kind. As long as their sugar daddy, sugar momma or whatever title you want to give to that friend or family member that placed them there is living and in the organization they will be there. Not to mention they will be there messing things up, pointing fingers and causing problems fro everyone around them.

The leaders who are oblivious to anything and everything. They can’t see, feel or smell anything that’s happening around them. Their lack of self-awareness and leadership peripheral vision is causing everyone in the organization to get blind-sided by their blind spots.

The Leaders who take all of the credit for the good and accept none of the responsibility for the bad. Not only are they not willing to look in the mirror, they don’t even own a mirror.

The Leaders who are from the Sadaam Hussain School Of Dictator Leadership. My Way Or The Highway and Because I Said So type of leader.

The Insecure, Chameleon that changes depending on who is in the room. This leader also puts on the facade of being tough and strong when the reality is everything they do, say and think is through their internal lens of insecurity.

The 5 Best Types Of Leaders are:

The leaders who understand “There is no ‘I’ in team” is more than a slogan or a cute leadership phrase. They embrace the team concept, they use “us and we” type of language. They truly understand that “Teamwork makes the dream work.”

The leaders who value leadership development. They talk it, they live it, they put resources towards it and they evaluate its outcomes. These leaders understand they their leadership and the success of their organization ceases if leaders are not truly developed. They hold themselves accountable not only to their personal growth and development, but the development of those individuals that are under their tutelage. They truly develop leaders. More times than not the leaders who have worked for them go on to do bigger, better and greater things.

The leaders who genuinely care about the people that they lead. They understand that the folks that they lead are more than a number, a cog in a wheel and a means to an end. They understand that they are real people, with real lives, real dreams, real families, real life challenges and are ultimately a part of an awesomely real team.

The leaders who lead by example. Some people get leading by example confused with doing all of the work and that’s not the case at all. Yes this leader works hard but leading by example is how you work, how you act and how you live. Leading with integrity, demonstrating a standard of excellence, treating people fair and doing the right thing even when no one is watching. This leader gives credit where credit is due, accepts responsibility and is an overall great example.

They are constant learners. They learn from people inside and outside of the organization and people up and down the organizational chart. They understand, “At the point you stop learning is the point in which you start dying.”